SPIRITUAL EXCERCISES & RSV BIBLE EXTRACTS - WEEK 122
STARTS THURSDAY 27th MAY 2010
TRANSFORMATION IS GOD’S GIFT THROUGH MARY
(A)THE HALL-MARKS OF “MARIAN HOLINESS OF LIFE”
Weekly message No. 117 (22nd May 1986).
7. Comprehending Our Lady’s messages with our heart.
“Dear children! Today I wish to give you my own love. You do not know, dear children, how great my love is, and you do not know how to accept it. In various ways I wish to show it to you, but you, dear children, do not recognize it. You do not understand my words with your heart and neither are you able to comprehend my love. Dear children, accept me in your life and so you will be able to accept all I am saying to you and to which I am calling you. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
PRACTICAL:
During this week reflect about how Our Lady is showing Her love for you.
Thursday: Trust in God’s providence.
Matthew 6:25-32.
25“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
Friday:
The love of Jesus will open our hearts to the infinite love of the Father to us.
John 14:21-23.
21He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Saturday: God’s love for his people.
Jeremiah 31:3-4.
3The LORD appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. 4Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with timbrels, and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
Saturday: Cf. Hosea 11:1-9.
1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols. 3Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. 4I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one, who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them. 5They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. 6The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them in their fortresses. 7My people are bent on turning away from me; so they are appointed to the yoke, and none shall remove it. 8How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel! How can I make you like Admah! How can I treat you like Zeboiim! My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. 9I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come to destroy.
Sunday: God’s love for us.
1 John 4:7-11.
7Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. 8He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. 9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Sunday: Cf. John 3:16.
16For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Monday: To love wisdom is to find spiritual riches and honour.
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 6:26-28.
26Come to her with all your soul, and keep her ways with all your might. 27Search out and seek, and she will become known to you; and when you get hold of her, do not let her go. 28For at last you will find the rest she gives, and she will be changed into joy for you.
Monday: Cf. Wisdom 6:12.
12Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her.
Tuesday: They will find love who search for Wisdom.
Proverbs 8:17-21.
17I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. 18Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and prosperity. 19My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. 20I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, 21endowing with wealth those who love me, and filling their treasuries.
Tuesday: Cf. Luke 11:9-13.
9And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Wednesday: Our Lady’s beautiful love for us.
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 24:24-31.
23All this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the congregations of Jacob.
(No verse 24) 25It fills men with wisdom, like the Pishon, and like the Tigris at the time of the first fruits. 26It makes them full of understanding, like the Euphrates, and like the Jordan at harvest time. 27It makes instruction shine forth like light, like the Gihon at the time of vintage. 28Just as the first man did not know her perfectly, the last one has not fathomed her; 29for her thought is more abundant than the sea, and her counsel deeper than the great abyss. 30I went forth like a canal from a river and like a water channel into a garden. 31I said, “I will water my orchard and drench my garden plot;” and lo, my canal became a river, and my river became a sea.
(Latin Vulgate-Knox translation, see Handbook p.7l)
(Knox translation as in the Handbook, page 71) Based on some Greek texts and the Latin Vulgate – which gives us a beautiful portrayal of Mary, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the Seat of Wisdom, the “Mother of beautiful love.”
“It is I that give birth to (I am the Mother of) all noble loving, all reverence, all true knowledge, and holy gift of hope. From me comes every grace of faithful observance, from me all promise of life and vigour. Hither turn your steps, all you that have learned to long for me; take your fill of the increase I yield. Never was honey so sweet as the influence I inspire, never honey-comb as the gift I bring; mine is the renown that endures, age after age. Eat of this fruit, and you will yet hunger for more; drink of this wine, and your thirst for it is still unquenched. He who listens to me will never be disappointed; he who reads my lesson aright will find in it life eternal.”
SHORT ACT OF CONSECRATION
Loving Lord Jesus, I belong entirely to you, and all that I have I offer to you through Mary your holy Mother, for the glory of the Father.